*Sorry in advance if I butcher this story, had it floating in my head during bootcamp to pass the dreadful boredom. Someone can steal it if they think they can write it better, I've never made a story before so this will be rough, to say the least.*
-Robert
Robert Queen, successful multimillionaire and owner of Queen Consolidated, did not realize how terrible of an idea it was to bring his two sons out with him for a boat trip. In hindsight, it should have been pretty obvious from the get-go. What with his daughter, Thea Queen, balling her eyes out and begging him not to take her 'Jay-Jay' away. She'd always been attached at the hip to Jace, he spoiled her rotten. Sure, Oliver spoiled her just as badly, but Robert thinks the age gap is just too large to warrant that close connection that Jace and Thea have.
That was just the start of his bad premonition though. The bigger red flag was Oliver bringing his girlfriend's sister on board. Sure, he was happy to know his son Oliver was almost as charming as himself, but this was BOTH of a cop's daughters he was playing with. He knew this would bite the whole family in the ass when Detective Lance heard tell.
The icing on the cake was right in front of him now, puking his guts out over the side of the ship. Jace Queen hadn't left the topside of the ship since he stepped foot on board. Oliver took his bags inside with a boisterous laugh, poking fun at his brother for not being able to hold on even a little before spilling his guts.
Now, here he was, one hand keeping his boy from falling overboard while his other was patting his back. Jace wasn't usually so seasick, they'd taken plenty of boat rides in much tougher waters hundreds of times. Come to think of it, Jace was burning up to, looking paler then a ghost.
"Jace, are you alright? You've been out on the deck for hours, you don't even have anything in your stomach anymore." Robert said, dreading what might be wrong with his son.
Jace looked up with unfocused dark green eyes, seeming to pop with the deep eyebags under them. He still looked handsome, all things considered. His high fade haircut was a personal choice, he just liked to keep his sides cool with his top covered, not that it helped much at the moment. His hair was matted in sweat, he slicked it back to keep it out of his eyes, his athletic 5'10 frame hunched over the railing as he shakely responds to his father.
"Yeah Dad, I'll live. I don't know why, but this time around, it's like my gut wants nothing to do with this boat. It's trying to hop straight off like the rest of my stomach..." Jace says, cracking a dulled smile. Robert couldn't help but notice that his eyes don't have his usual twinkle in them, his words missing the playful sarcasm and bluntness behind them.
Robert was now officially worried. "Look son, if we need to turn around, cut this trip short -"
"Mr. Queen, you need to come take a look at this NOW" The voice of the captain called from the bridge of the ship, his tone with urgency slipping through.
Robert sighed, he couldn't just leave his son out here, but the urgency in his captain's voice sounded too important to dismiss. "Jace, head into the ship. I don't think standing out here is going to help you. That much should be clear. There should be some medicine in my cabin. I'm not sure what you need, but we should have something for the common colds and whatnot. I'll come see you after this."
Jace gave a fake half smile, his eyes squinting as he tried to ensure his father the best he could. A weak "Totally" slipped from his mouth as he started to slowly walk along the ships railing into his father's cabin.
-Jace
Well, this was officially turning into his worst day in a long time. The worst before, by far, had been his first day with the Queens. He hadn't been Jace Queen then, he'd been Jace; just Jace, street rat thief. At 10 he thought he could make it big if he could act big like rich kids. So, in his very smooth brain the best way to do that was to break into the Queen's castle for a day and 'be a Queen for a day'. (It sounded better in his head, thinking back on it.) The only problem was that he grew to like being one of the Queen's, even if they didn't know they had a new 'son' sleeping in an unused maid's room for 2 weeks. Little Thea knew though, she found him within 3 days, scrounging though the second kitchen conveniently only used for large gatherings. He had managed to convince her that he was a friendly ghost. She'd called him her personal Casper at the time, he called himself her personal hustler. Then we were both confused, because what the hell is a Casper?
The only problem was that you can't really trust a 7 year old not to get excited about her only friend being someone only she can see, she spilled the beans by the end of week 2. He got the shit beat out of him by an overenthusiastic guard until his blessed new mother socked him in the mouth, she froze the whole house that day and Thea was quick to claim him like a pitiful kitten in a cardboard box. It was a lot harder to get rid of this cat then the one she'd tried to adopt before. After all the smoke cleared, they had a new son/brother, and he was no longer just Jace.
But back to this being an awful day, he was tapped dry of food, stomach acid, and probably some brain cells from all the horking he was doing over the side of the Queens gambit. Rummaging through his father's cabinet for something to help with gagging and newly acquired headache, he was suddenly thrown to the deck as the entire ship lurched to the side. Groaning, Jace tried to stand up, only to get dragged back down to the deck harder this time as his entire view went sideways, then black. His vision snapped back a second later as water entered his lungs. He struggled to rush to the surface. He'd somehow managed to escape going down with the ship, truly unworthy of the title of captain.
While usually he'd laugh at his own joking self-deprecating, if he'd opened his mouth for it now he'd certainly drown. 'It's official, I now hate boats.' As he swam toward the surface, he passed by loose baggage, nothing he could use unfortunately. Just before he broke the surface, he saw something that made his blood freeze, Sara was floating in the water just a couple yards away. She was unconscious, a life vest conveniently close to her. He wasn't usually the hero type, blame a rough environment in the glades for 10 years, but Sara was reason enough to try, she was there for him like an older sister, she was worth the risk.
He snatched the vest on his way over, he didn't need it. Swimming wasn't his strong suit, but he was no worse than a dog paddling. What? Instincts get you farther then you think in a life-or-death situation. He finally reached Sara just as she was slipping under, slipping the life vest over her head and pulling the CO2 cord. With that, she was safe, just a cut above her head and maybe some water in the lungs.
He wasn't so fortunate, he'd overestimated himself in a weakened self and severely overtaxed himself. His head felt like it suddenly split open and his entire body locked up in a full body cramp. He sunk like a stone, his sudden scream immediately filled his lungs with salty water. 16 years of age and the only thing that flashed through his mind was how little he managed to accomplish in his life. A PR boost for the Queens, a decent brother, if a short lived one, then he thought about the one thing he HAD accomplished, the saving of Sara Lance. He could die with that, at least he could say he died for a proper cause now. It was just a shame that his last visible sight would be of Sara's terrified face as she locked eyes with him. 'Welp, sorry for the trauma bomb, I'm gonna die now'. The last of his breath was spent laughing into the ocean.
-Robert
The ship was going down fast, Robert didn't know if it was the storm or his hellish karma that had caused it, the only thing he knew is that he had to get his children off this ship with the lifeboat as soon as possible. He managed to pull Oliver out with the assistance of the captain.
"Oliver, where's Jace!? You two need to get out of this!" Robert shouted over the storm. His voice just barely breaking through the storm and Oliver's screaming of "Saraaaa!!! Dad, she's still out there! We have to go back! I saw her!"
Robert was concerned, he didn't know how long it would take for help to come, or how long there supplies would last. 4 was stretching a couple days at most, 5 was impossible. He wasn't going to let his son's possible last thoughts of him be that he was too heartless and pragmatic to save someone that might still have a chance. The captain and himself were one thing, but his sons and Sara were too young to die.
They stuck around to find the screaming Lance crying and screaming for help. They pulled her into the boat kicking and screaming. When she finally managed to sputter out something that made sense, Robert and Oliver froze. "Jace is down there! He pulled me out and now he's drowning!" Oliver was the first to move, brotherly instinct kicking in as he went to the side of the boat, preparing to jump in.
Just then, lighting up the ocean, was a blinding blue light just below the surface. The ocean started bulging, rapidly pushing the boat away and knocking everyone on their ass. Oliver sat there for just a second before crawling back over the edge, ready to try again. Robert pulled him back just in time as the ocean collapsed back in on itself, pushing them further away.
"He's gone Oliver, going back is just a sure way to make sure none of us make it out of this alive!" Robert hated having to say that, but someone had to say it, and he wouldn't put that on the captain. Lord knows this will probably be their last hours.
-Unknown
"So, you're saying he just showed up prepackaged in the drum and what, drank our V? That was 200 gallons, MILLIONS WERE LOST!!!! We can't even use the rest of it because you dumb fucks haven't even taken him out of the rest of it yet!" a short woman in a skintight costume shouted at the gathered lab coats. She was seconds away from lighting them up in an epic storm.
"Ma'am, please wait, this is something we can't just get rid of. It's still alive!" The woman in the center rushed to explain, holding up her hands in some vein effort to stop her, not for the life of the 'thing' in the vat. She couldn't care less about a pretty face; they were a dime a dozen in this world. What made her stand up to terrifying super in front of her was what the man in the vat being alive meant. People don't live with that much V around them, their organs fail, they explode, they die. This 'thing' was just in a coma; and super blue. Just to make sure though, they kept him under. There was no knowing what that much V could do to someone without first doing tests.
The woman stood there for a minute. Thoughts spinning through her head. This changed a lot of things, a body that can handle that much V could change the balance of super society. "Okay... then how long has he been in the vat?" She looked over at the vat with a overly bloated (drowned bloated) blue naked man floating inside. The metal plate labeled "J-000" had a crudely drawn picture of a stick figure in blue, with obscenely large circles on the arms and legs as a show of muscles. The Handwriting underneath was sloppy, like a young child, reading "Jay Jay the ghost". It looked horrible, it was like a sad attempt to bring character to a bloated test subject.
The doctors looked around nervously, waiting for one of them to step up and drop the bomb and be put under the spotlight. They've been keeping this from the Vaught for too long for this not to cause an outrage. They could only hope this would smooth over slightly with the research they presented afterwords.
"5 years"